Rock Band Squier Stratocaster Priced For Australia

The Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster was released in the US last week, at an RRP of $280US but, considering the franchise's patchy history in Australia, and the fact that the product was a relatively niche one, we didn't really expect the controller to get an official release in this country. Turns out we were wrong.

We don't have an official Australian release date, but the Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster will be sold in this country, along with the Rock Band 3 MIDI box, enabling players to use existing keyboards with the game.

All equipment will be sold through local Fender dealers, meaning you'll have to venture into Guitar stores, as opposed to game retailers, if you want to buy one. We get the feeling that the amount of guitars Fender brings into the country will depend entirely on the initial demand, and Fender is recommending that gamers place an order at a local Fender dealer to make sure they get hold of one when stock is received.

The prices are as follows:

Squier Rock Band 3 Guitar - $349 R.R.P.
MIDI Box - $60 R.R.P.

Considering the fact that the Guitar costs $280US, we're actually quite surprised at the price. It is, after all, a fully functioning Guitar - not just a plastic toy. You can actually plug it into an amp and get your Marty McFly on.

Despite the fact that I haven't played Rock Band 3 anywhere near as much as I expected to, I'm still seriously thinking about picking one of these up - what about you guys? Are you over Rock Band yet? Anyone considering getting the Squier Strat?

Despite the fact that it's only a Squier and not a real Fender, $350AUD is an absolute bargain for a MIDI-equipped guitar. Even if you have no interest in Rock Band 3, this would be great fun to mess around with if you can already play guitar and are interested in home recording.

The Behringer guitars only have an audio interface built in. This Squier model has a MIDI interface, which is what intrigues me: most guitar-MIDI systems (pickup and converter) cost more than this guitar does.

The Ausie price is great. I just found the New Zealand price of NZ$599 and NZ$89 for the midi controller. Probably the most expensive in the world. The rest of the world should consider itself lucky. They also have an eta of May.

I bought RB3 on release with a keyboard and played for a few days. Somewhere between my guitar controller breaking and me realising that the keyboard controls were only for one hand I just lost interest.

It'd be nice to have something to spark me into playing again, I do love me some Rock Band, but a $350 guitar won't do the trick.

Yeah im over RockBand BUT im over it in the sense of plastic instruments (excluding drums). i really want to learn guitar but i know i wont go to lessons and i need structure so i think for me personally RB3 pro is quite possibly the best possible way that I can learn guitar.

i too am surprised at the $350, it is so close to the US $280 that i will now buy local instead of importing it.

sucks that i still need to pay $60 for the midi adapter though.
jumping over the $400 barrier makes a huge psychological difference to me

I don't want this guitar, I just want the normal Rock Band 3 guitar. Which is difficult to find. Ever since my Rock Band 2 guitar broke I haven't been playing much. The Guitar Hero guitars' necks are too thick to be comfortable for me.

That was the Pro guitar, there actually is a normal RB3 guitar, I believe it's black for the 360 and blue for the PS3 which by all accounts is the only difference between the RB2 guitar and the RB3 guitar.
I'd actually prefer a RB2 guitar but they're even more difficult to get hold of than the RB3 one.

What a surprisingly good price.
Since BestBuy #@$%ed up my order, I guess I'll grab one locally... the only question is: when are they coming out here? =\
I'm very close to putting an order down for one from a German place that ships internationally at the end of this month... hmmmmz... more info needed =(